Date: Fri, 09 Mar 2007 04:48:07 -0500 From: Fred W <malt_houndnospamo.com> Subject: Re: Why the number 9?
Dave Hinz wrote: > On Thu, 08 Mar 2007 16:54:45 GMT, Fat Sam <samandjanetknoxnospamco.net> wrote: > >>I've wondered this for a while now. >>What's the signifigance to the number 9 in Saabs naming convention? >>All their cars seem to feature a number 9 in the title....900, 9000, 93, >>95..... > > > Saab numbered their models sequentially. So the Saab 91 was the "Safir" > (link here: http://www.fcfk.com/safir/ ), the next thing on the design > board was the Saab 92 ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saab_92 ) > > Once they got into cars, they reserved the 2-digit 9x range for them. > The 99 turned into the 900. By then marketing folks were in charge > rather then engineers, so it got a bit wodgy and we ended up with 9-3 > and 9-5 which have only vague meanings relative to the original naming > scheme. > Yes, I do believe that the marketing people looked at the BMW models and said: This 9 competes with the 3 series so let's call it a 9-3. That one competes with the 5 series, so 9-5. If not intentional, what a huge coincidence, eh? -- -Fred W
